CNY Native and Actor Nick Basta Talks About His Role in “Harriet” Now in Theaters

The story of freedom fighter Harriet Tubman has come to life on the big screen and one native Central New Yorker plays an important role in telling her story.

Actor Nick Basta stars in the Focus Features film and he says that playing the role of a villain, while challenging, is always an adventure.

“I’ve played a lot of villains over the last three years … and I really like playing nasty guys. This one was particularly hard playing the overseer ‘Fox,’ he says. “The way I portray an actor is that you have to do the job. So his job was to find Mindy (Harriet) and do the job that he had.”

Basta is proud of his Central New York roots and felt like he also was able to convey the importance of the role that Tubman played in his native area.

“Harriett Tubman being from Auburn was really great for me, because I told everyone on set and the cast that I have a little bit more familiarity with the history than most,” he says.

The film starring Cynthia Erivo as Tubman is more than just a story about slavery and Basta says that the entire production worked hard to convey Director Kasi Lemmons idea.

“It’s essentially a chase movie. It’s a superhero movie and not a slave movie and that’s what Kasi Lemmons, the director and writer wanted to convey,” he adds.

“Harriet” is in theaters now and you can see the film locally at Shoppingtown Mall.

But “Harriet” isn’t the only project he’s part of either. Next year,
Basta can be seen in the DC Universe Series “StarGir”‘ and “The Glorias”
which is a feature film based on feminist icon Gloria Steinem’s best
selling memoir. The film stars Alicia Vikander, Julianne Moore, Timothy
Hutton, Bette Midler and more.

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